Miscellanies 3.4.25

Of those who are led by a heresy, we have mentioned Marcion of Pontus, who rejects the use of worldly things out of opposition to the Creator. For him the cause of his self-control, if one should call it self-control, is the Creator himself, against whom this giant who fights God, thinking to stand, is self-controlled against his will, running down both the creation and man's formation. Even if they use the Lord's saying to Philip, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but you follow me,” let them consider that Philip too bears the same formation of flesh, but not a polluted corpse. How, then, did he have flesh and not have a corpse? Because he rose from the tomb when the Lord put his passions to death, and he lived to Christ. We also mentioned the lawless community of wives according to Carpocrates; and in discussing the saying of Nicolaus we left this out. He had a beautiful wife, they say, and after the Savior's ascension, being reproached by the apostles for jealousy, he brought his wife into the middle and allowed anyone who wished to marry her. For they say that this act was consistent with that saying of his, that one must “abuse the flesh.” And following both what was done and what was said, simply and without examination, those who follow his heresy commit sexual immorality without restraint.